Today (July 1, 2009), Dr. Timothy Tennent is officially installed as the eighth President of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. This blog is to honor a man who is remarkable in his academic achievements, solid in his character and spirituality, inspirational in his teaching, and who I am deeply blessed to count as a friend.
Born on September 24, 1959, in Atlanta, Georgia, Tim Tennent is a direct descendant of the famous Tennent family who count Gilbert and William Tennent among their numbers. Gilbert Tennent was one of the founders of the First Great Awakening, along with Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Theodore Frelinghuysen. William Tennent was the founder of Princeton Theological Seminary. Interestingly, though Tim Tennent comes from a long line of Reformed Presbyterian theologians, he is the anomaly in the family, being a staunch Wesleyan and ordained a Methodist minister. He pastored two Methodist churches in Georgia between 1982-90. Also, he is married to Julie and has two children, Jonathan and Bethany.
Tennent did his M.Div. at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), and continued with his Th.M. at Princeton Theological Seminary. When he arrived on campus at PTS, he insisted on residing in Tennent Hall, which at the time was devoted solely to international students. He was granted special dispensation because of his lineage!
Then he took his first teaching post at Toccoa Falls College, winning the Teacher of the Year award in 1995. His next step was to go off to the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, to do his Ph.D. on the Indian Christian theologian Brahmabandhav Upadhyay (1861-1907), earning his degree from the same university as famed missiologist J. Christy Wilson, whom Tennent admired.
Dr. Tennent arrived at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary the same year that I did, in 1998. Only, he was a new professor, and I was merely a new M.Div. student! At the end of his first year of teaching, in the summer of ’99, he offered an OMP (Overseas Mission Practicum), inviting students to join him on a summer trip to India, but only three of us took him up on this offer: myself, Sean Doyle, and Debbie Slattery. We spent an incredible month in India together, visiting the cities of New Delhi, Dehra Dun, Mussoori, Varanasi, and Agra. We preached, taught seminars, contributed musically, sat in on seminary classes, observed Indian ministries, helped with church plants, visited leper churches, experienced the culture and food, and oh yeah, we went to visit the Taj Mahal and Gandhi’s grave!
One humorous story about our time in India was a short trip that Sean, Debbie, and I took to Varanasi, the Hindu holy city. Tim couldn’t come with us because he had teaching responsibilities at New Theological College, in Dehra Dun, but he said as we departed, “Have fun, I’ll see you in a few days, and oh—bring me back a shivalingam!” That last part was a complete joke, as a lingam is a religious symbol of fertility used by worshipers of the god Shiva. However, not to be deterred, I was determined to get him one, so when I was in Varanasi I looked for the smallest shivalingam I could find. I purchased it, wrapped it in newspaper, and presented it to him upon our return to NTC. He had forgotten he had asked me to get one for him, so he unwrapped the gift with a puzzled look on his face, then roared with laughter when he saw what it was! To this day, I still don’t know what he did with it!
The funny thing is, after a few years at Gordon-Conwell, Dr. Tennent went from relative obscurity to becoming one of the most popular professors. I remember people walking out of his class saying, “I never even thought much about missions before, but his lectures inspire me to go out there on the mission field to preach the Gospel!” Though only three of us signed up for the initial OMP trip to India in ’99, when Tennent offered the trip again in 2002, dozens of people signed up to go with him!
One important relationship that must be mentioned is his friendship with Rev. George Chavanikamannil, founder of the organization Good News for India. Tennent and Chavanikamannil became fast friends when they met in 1987, and have partnered together ever since. When George founded a Christian school in Dehra Dun, India, called New Theological College, Tim was right there to help him get it started. Today, NTC is a thriving theological school, and Tim goes to guest teach there every summer!
Because of my connection with Dr. Tennent (you do a lot of bonding when you travel together to a foreign country and spend 24/7 together for a month!), I became Dr. Tennent’s personal research assistant for a year, as did Sean Doyle (in a different year). Sean went on to do his Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in Indian Christian studies, following in the footsteps of Tennent. While I went to Oxford instead of Edinburgh, and I studied Latin America instead of India, I credit catching the missions “bug” from Dr. Tennent, and I still cite him as one of the main reasons why I chose to go into the field of missiology.
In 2002, his second book came out, entitled Christianity at the Religious Round Table (Baker). I had helped him do research for this book while I was his research assistant, and he put my name in the Acknowledgments. I was elated because that was the first time my name was ever in published form—in the front of his book! He has since published a number of other books, including: Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church is Influencing the Way we Think about and Discuss Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007); Islam: An Introductory Study, (African Leadership, 2008); and the forthcoming Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the 21st Century (Grand Rapids: Kregel Press, 2010).
Today, Asbury Theological Seminary honors Dr. Tennent with its Presidency (fittingly, Asbury Seminary’s School of Missions is named after E. Stanley Jones, the famed missionary to—you guessed it—India). Dr. Barry Corey, the President of Biola University (and formerly Vice-President and Dean at Gordon-Conwell) is also friends with Tim Tennent. Tennent asked Corey to come speak at his installation service, as one President to another.
So, here I raise a toast to this man who inspires people and who follows God with all his heart. God truly honors those who seek him! I can think of no worthier President of Asbury than Dr. Timothy Tennent.
Sean Doyle, me, and Tim Tennent in Edinburgh, Scotland. Sean and Tim both did their Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh, while I did my Masters degree there. We conveniently snapped a shot underneath a Tennent’s beer sign!